Get Ready for Some Tech-Bubble Opulence, Starting With Facebook’s Russian Billionaire

Mark Zuckerberg can have his self-effacing hoodies and low-key Palo Alto rentals. Leave it to one of Russia’s nouveau-riche billionaires to show ‘em how to spend that tech guap. Yuri Milner, the billionaire behind Digital Sky Technologies whose investments include Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga, plunked down $100 million for a mansion in Silicon Valley — the highest known price paid for a single-family home in the U.S.Sorry not familiar with this “new austerity,” brosef. Milner’s 25,500-square-foot French-style chateau in Los Altos Hills is a far cry from Zuckerberg’s recent purchase: a five bedroom, 3,800-square-foot home, with his Acura TSXparked out front. To be fair, Zuckerberg’s billions are still theoretical. Besides, when Forbes features you on the cover of their billionaire issue like they did Milner, you gotta give the rest of the list something toenvy.

The symmetrical limestone mansion features indoor and outdoor pools, a ballroom, a wine cellar, and views of San Francisco Bay, should Milner and his family, who live in Moscow, ever choose to move in. Between the mock eighteenth-century manse and Demand Media Richard Rosenblatt’s yacht (named The Adsense after the Google advertising platform that made his content farm rich), we hope this is a sign of many more ridiculous purchases to come. How else will magazine writers be able to evoke the heady first flush when they look back at the bubble thatwas?